Ashill walk

The evening of June 17th saw us outside St Nicholas Church in Ashill with a new group of nine locals eager to learn about bats and moths. As it started to get dark we heard our first pipistrelle bat foraging around the front of church yard.  We then headed down a footpath that ran alongside a field and the road. It was on this footpath that we heard a few soprano and common pipistrelles commuting along the hedgerows. With plenty of insects flying along the hedgerow it wasn't a surprise to hear some of the pipistrelles foraging (identified on the detector by the a higher pitched, rapid buzz, known as a feeding buzz). Our walk back to the church and through village gave us more pipistrelles, both common and soprano.

The moth trap provided a few moths from Common Swifts, Grass Veneers, Clays to Uncertains.

The Garden Grass veneer is commonly found in grasslands, woodlands, fens, heathlands and in gardens. It flies around from May to September. Its food plants are grasses.

Results from detectors and camera traps left overnight at Ashill

Locations of the bat detectors

Point A - Side of church

55 Common pipistrelles

3 Soprano pipistrelles

1 Myotis species (belongs to the genus Myotis. Could be a Natterer's, Daubenton's,Whiskered or Brandt's)

4 species identified

Point B - Back of church 

37 Common pipistrelles

1 species identified

Point C - Front of church

159 Common pipistrelles

5 Soprano pipistrelles

2 species identified